


Not For Grief

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fire Nation assumed the great General Iroh ended the Siege of Ba Sing Se out of grief. They were wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not For Grief

They said it was his grief. They whispered it, murmured it around court when they thought he could not hear. In fact he could hear, which is to say that the sound permeated his ears, made contact with his eardrums, but the grief cast a veil around his brain so that the message never made it there. But still, he heard. And they were wrong. 

Yes, he grieved. Unbearably. Yes, all he could hear, see, was Lu Ten. Lu Ten, laughing pointing at the turtle ducks in the pond. Lu Ten, running across the grass shooting imaginary flames at him, smiling. Lu Ten, shaking him awake in the middle of the night, terrified from yet another bad dream. Lu Ten, splayed across a branch of one of the trees in the orchard, pining after an adolescent love. Lu Ten, on the steps of the palace, proudly donning his officer’s uniform for the first time, with eagerness and a little fear in his eyes, ready to make his father proud in Ba Sing Se.

But it was not just here, in this palace or this country that he saw his son. When the messenger had come, in the camp in Ba Sing Se, his breathing heavy, struggling to keep his cheeks dry, when that same soldier had uttered the unimaginable words, apologizing profusely, something transformed in the General’s eyes, even before the shock faded, even before the tears fell. Each body, crushed by Earth in the camp, each one of his fallen warriors—Lu Ten. Each Earthbending defender, burnt and dead at his hand—Lu Ten. Each man under his command and under his enemy’s—Lu Ten. Each civilian he killed—Lu Ten. 

And thus the gossip about him burning through court like wildfire was wrong. He did not end the siege because he was too crushed with grief. He made a choice. He would kill no more sons. 

And his father revoked his birthright. He didn’t care. He wanted nothing to do with a country that murdered sons and daughters. Let the country think the great General Iroh fell, old and senile. This was no longer his country. Maybe one day he would return. One day, on a day that would never come, when Lu Ten was no longer all he could see.


End file.
